1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for searching for images similar to a certain image.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an example of a conventional technique used in cellular phones with a camera function, which can be connected to the Internet, a technique is disclosed in JP 2007-128150 A, which performs an optical character reading process (OCR process) on image data and uses resultant data (character information recorded as image data) as a search keyword to search for Web sites disclosing various sorts of information including characters. The technique does not require a user to manually input character information recorded as image data. Therefore, the user is allowed to search for keywords through Web sites without performing a troublesome input operation.
The technique uses the well known optical character reading technique (OCR technique) to read characters appearing in a photo, thereby automatically obtaining character information from image data, but cannot obtain character information from a photo, in which no character appears. Therefore, for example, when the user of the cellular phone shoots using a camera function of the cellular phone a photo in which no characters appear, and searches for images having contents similar to the photo on the Internet, the user is required to manually input keywords (character information) expressing contents of the photo. As a result, a disadvantage is invited that requires the user to execute troublesome manipulations.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problems involved in the conventional technique, and has an object to provide a method and apparatus for searching for images similar to a certain image in a simple manner.